Contact applications on mobile communication devices allows end-users to store phone numbers, email addresses, and other useful information in contacts that generally represent people with whom they communicate. Sharing contacts with other users is feasible on most mobile devices and provides a quick way to transfer a name and phone number from one end-user to another.
Some contact applications include note features that allow end-users to annotate their contacts with notes. But creating or accessing notes in a contact usually requires an end-user to navigate to that contact. This may involve navigating to their contact application or, in some cases, navigating directly to a contact via a short cut. In either case, the user experience is focused on the contact and contact application, as opposed to some other more productive activity.
From a more technical perspective, contact-related notes typically reside locally and, to the extent they may be stored in the cloud or distributed across a user's other devices, are relegated to being experienced through the contact application. The multiple steps required of a user to add and edit notes in a contact may consume local resource, such as processing cycles and battery life. The added steps also frustrate users and discourage them from utilizing the note feature in contact application.